There is an unusual cabin deep in the woods. It had served as a laboratory and a dwelling for three generations of Lodgers. But as of late the latest Lodger has been noticing weird changes in familiar surroundings; things are missing, noises and rattle heard. Something odd is coming out of the woods.

20. dubna

A plague breaks out in a remote steppe town full of weird local traditions. Three healers try to fight it: a scientist from the Capital, the son of a local shaman, and a half-crazed girl. Each of them has their own idea of how the terrible disease came to be, and what is real magic to one of them becomes backwards superstitions to another. Taking on the role of any of these doctors, you’ll try to overcome the invisible evil while doing your best not to succumb to the disease, to bandits, hunger, and fatigue; scavenging and bartering for pills, bread, and milk. But survival is hard here.

Pathologic is the first game Ice-Pick Lodge has released—and it’s also the game we’re working on now. Weird, huh? One would suspect it must have something to do with us bumping into a Guest and rewinding time.

It was a successful bump, too: we’ve had a rather spectacular Kickstarter campaign to support the development of the remake of Pathologic.

The campaign is over—yet once again a wild paradox appears: it really isn’t.

We’ve launched a Backer Portal recently—a website where you still can support the game. You can learn more about Pathologic there, of course, and then sign up for the Portal if you find yourself interested in the game. If you like survival, plague, and despair, it may be worth taking a look.

Oh, and we’ve also got an official Steam community now—with a Curator’s List of our favourite games and all. We are planning to update it, too, and it’s the best place to contact us on Steam if you want to discuss something that’s not Knock-Knock.

Steam Greenlight

Informace o hře

There is an unusual cabin deep in the woods. It had served as a laboratory and a dwelling for three generations of Lodgers.

But as of late the latest Lodger has been noticing weird changes in familiar surroundings; things are missing, noises and rattle heard. Something odd is coming out of the woods. Come night, it seems like someone's made himself at home in the twilight of rooms, attics, and cellars.

You need to stay awake and sane till dawn.

The Lodger is wandering the rooms, evading the unknown, counting minutes till morning. But it's only in the night that he can solve the main puzzle and find the answers. What's going on? Are the Guests real, or are they just figments of his insomniac imagination? What'd happened to the forest? What's happening to the cabin? Is there a line between reality and imagination?

Gameplay details

Hide! Play hide-and-seek with denizens of your nightmares.

Don't look now! The goal of each night is to reach dawn while still sane.

Fill in the gaps. The house aids the Lodger. You only have to fix it up and keep it in order.

Seek. The Lodger has lost something very important. The reason for what is happening is somewhere inside. Everything that is happening can be explained, you only need to find the key and bring it to light.

Wait. In this game you need to watch and listen carefully. Inspect and scrutinize. You only have to last until the sunrise.

Follow the rules of the game! Of course you must first understand the game being played with you.

It's essentially a creepy game of Hotel Mario plus hide and seek where the rules are different for each level and you kind of have to figure them out from narration and sometimes failure. If you still don't understand what this game is about, well, join the club. However, half the fun is figuring it out.

And it's really friggin creepy. I know the art style look like something out of a Tim Burton film, but this game scares the crap out of me and stays with me long after I play. That's why this game gets my recommendation.

This is such a strange title, it's not really a scary game, but the few bits of music and the setting make for a fairly tense evening everytime I decide to play it.

The rules of the game themselve are not very clear, and while you might be the type who will see it as a challenge, not everyone might have the patience to get punished for something they don't know that they have done.

The game can be very cryptic at times and the good ending is quite difficult to discover without reading a walkthrough, but overall i think this game was a good experience.

Knock-knock is a deeply unnerving game that manages to succeed at what it sets out to do.

From the start you get to meet the charming Lodger as he briefly teaches you just how things are in his home. From there it's up to you to figure out the rest. You have six days and nights to adjust and learn, and then from there the game really begins. The time limit is pretty strict, so if you haven't figured out what you're doing by then, don't expect to survive. I barely managed on my first time with just a teensy bit of time left. Overall that stress of time and all the things out and inside your home coming after you is something that sticks with you for quite a while. Though the game does begin dull, once things speed up it truly feels like a game and all those horrifying things out there become all the more horrifying. I'd rather not say much since there are some great ideas in place and it's better to experience them for yourself than not. That's what the first six nights are for after all, just experimenting and figuring out the most effecient way of doing things.

There are flaws though, this game is heavy on RNG. Though skill can help you through most of what you're trying to accomplish, exploring the forest on a time limit is a bit much since there's no easy way to find your way home again rather than just go forwards and hope for the best. There's no guarentee that you'll figure out just what you're supposed to be doing out there without a hint or two either, though thankfully there are enough hints to make people explore the forest at least once or twice early on. Even worse, once you enter the night phases, enemies can and will spawn near you and remain there for long periods, often trapping you in a corner. Or worse, a roaming enemy will follow with it. Touching a solitary enemy is a minor time loss while touching a roamer will set you back a massive amount, but even a minor time loss is a lot here. The game's pretty well designed however and you figure out just what you should be doing before long, though there's little room for error so a few hints are always welcome.

So yeah, Knock-knock surprises though you need to give it a bit of time to shine and be patient through the less enjoyable segments. Not recommended for those who are effected by surrealistic imagry as half of this game's horror is based on that with the other half being existence and dementia based. If you think you can take it, pick it up.